Silvz

Thread locked because it doesn't look like any kind of constructive conversation is going to come out of it.  Please do not replicate or continue this thread elsewhere.  

People still post, it is just that it is more likely to be people asking about technical issues than anything else.  I don't like to sit on Discord, because it is too hard to keep track of conversations, and I prefer to just skim static posts rather than deal actual real time conversations.  For visits, we still get plenty, because people utilize all the old posts for technical help on VN issues all the time.  A lot of the other sites that had that information are long gone, so a lot of VN-readers treat us like some kind of archive for troubleshooting.
We do still get people asking for recs, but more and more it is stuff I can't get involved in, since I really only played untranslated VNs after the first six months or so.  
Incidentally, the amount of bots is probably about ten times what you think.  I prune at least ten for every one you report, because most just put their adlinks in their profiles rather than posting threads nowadays.
Edit: also the ghost bots that post meaningless and seemingly harmless posts that the bot goes back and edits a month or more later to add a link to.  The key for those is that they tend to use real people names for their handles... so newbies, please don't use your real name or something that might be a real name for your handle, because it is automatically suspicious here, lol.

Summer Pockets = 4 main heroines + 1 true route
Reflection Blue = 8 main heroines + 1 true route
Basically, more content. One heroine is exclusive to RB, while the other 3 on this version are side characters from the original game.
Honestly, all routes in RB are great, and the game is better because of that.
Now, consider buying the game when it releases in English. VNs are a niche market, and buying them helps bring more games to the west.

I mean, nobody knows. You'd have more luck asking on Mangagamer's or Shiravune's discord channels, and even there I'd doubt someone would reply, as plans for localizations are kept in secret until they are announced. If it isn't available yet, it's probably because no company thought it would be viable to sell it in English.

Eu cliquei no botão "spoilers" sem querer e não dá pra remover

I saw on Reddit that there were some bugs but they were already fixed. What you can do is play the first few hours (I believe it is two) and, if there are any major bugs, ask for a refund.

If you want to broaden your horizons, you should try some Yuri VNs. The ones I will recommend are NOT sex-oriented, as I believe you won't enjoy those.
SeaBed - One of the best narratives out there. It's a drama/psychological mystery full of twists and nice moments. One of my favorite VNs.
Flowers (series) - Romance-focused, the four games share a central mystery, but the romance is more proeminent.
___
Now, other non-LGBT+ games:
Horror/Mystery - Umineko no Naku Koro ni. Great worldbuilding, characters, plot twists and intriguing plot. However, it doesn't have the routes/heroines structure, although there is a lot of romance.
Mystery - Mamiya [buy the full version on steam] - Great mystery game with many plot twists. Can't talk too much about it without spoiling it.
 
 

Link
 
Well, I don't have anything to suggest other than Trianthology this time. Who knows if they'll actually pick it.

The current version is based on an original project which was once available under fuwanovel.se and was initially initiated by some Forums members (especially @Emi and @BunnyAdvocate), iirc. At some point, it was "integrated" into Fuwanovel.net, but in a really improvised way and thats still the case today. Unfortunately, its currently not really mobile-friendly, it has a few bugs and yes, as you realized, its game database is also quite outdated these days.
But as KosaKyun already mentioned, we work on a completely new version of it, which will address all these issues. But before we can release a new version of this quiz itself, we first want to have common base for some different features we currently plan for Fuwanovel.net. But once we have this base done, the quiz will be the first thing that will get a remake.
 

Currently I think it's still being overhauled! They'll probably give us an update once it relaunches or something. 

Frontwing is totally doubling down on the whole cute young poster heroine in an oceanic setting lol. Finished Ginka and currently reading ATRI


"I'm something of a Ginka-lover myself"

I can't contribute a lot because most of my year was spent reading the notoriously long White Album 2, the best girl being Touma, of course.
The biggest surprise for me is Mamiya. I already had some expectations for it being called a hidden gem, but I did not expect how much I'd enjoy it. One of the best VNs I've read overall.
Best support character is Sunohara, from Clannad, which I read for the second time.
Aside from WA2, my best girl was Olivia Berry, from Aojashin.

for a minute I thought I was back to /visualnovels
 

Started reading Cross Channel after @AmelieDoree's glowing review using the Amaterasu TL since it's supposed to be the only out of the three that's at least attempting to be somewhat accurate. I really like the game so far, but the TL notes are killing me sometimes.
Like what the hell is this? 1) "My stomach bug" is not a personification. 2) English has a metaphor with the identical meaning: "my stomach growls". It's even comparing the noise to one an animal makes. 3) The phrase "stomach bug" also exists in English, and means something different.
I'm usually quite lenient when it comes to TL quality, at least as long as there is some basic flow to the translated text, but when it's making me read three lines of text consisting of a wrong translation accompanied by a wrong TL note to explain a three word Japanese phrase that has an accurate three word English translation, it takes me out of the scene. So much so I decided to interrupt my read through and rant on the internet about it.
 
Edit: the next line is "like a beast". Goddamnit.

Hmm, I don't know how to help you. If you can't find anwsers here, maybe it's worth trying to get help on Shiravune's Discord server.

Hey, had to format my PC and now I can't play my save of the game. There is an option to open the save game files, but I don't know how to inject them into the game.

Idk man, thanks to all those years on the fantl circle, I managed to find a job related to what I enjoy doing. The otaku and VN industry is pretty much based on recomendations and contacts, not only skill or higher education. Hell, most professional translators worked as fan translators for years before becoming professional.

I worked a lot with fansubbing when I was younger, for free and just for fans, and that was what cemented my career as a translator. It is just like you said, we do it as a hobby in our free time, but at the same time we gain valuable techniques and knowledge that will be useful for us in the future. Nowadays I don't do fansub anymore as this is now my job, but without it I would not be where I am now.
Besides that, VN fan translations are basically what made the market exist nowadays. When I began reading them, we only had a handful of good translated vns, fuwa still had torrents and the same teams worked in different projects for free. Now, if you check VNDB for official releases' staffs, you'll see many of those translators now being paid for their work at the same time we keep getting quality VNs WAY faster than before.
Also, charging for fan translations is shady as hell.

Joke on you, most of us fan translators do this just because we want people to be able to enjoy the same thing that we do (and spreading the VN genre blah blah...). Also, good language practice for the future.
We don't do this in order to beg for money. Our day job can cover that just fine.

It always caught my attention how cheap VNs were at Jast even though they should be far more expensive based on their price in dollars, now it all makes sense. Honestly, I'm at a blast when I can buy a VN I'm interested in playing for as cheap as 30 reais.
So I'm happy Shiravune is distributing their games in other stores (specially on JAST), I hope Ryuusei World Actor and WA are made available there soon as well.

works on my machine

Reply all… long story short? I went to Alka before beginning work. I wanted to help them. They turned me away or completely ignored me depending on the person I was able to message. 
 
Alka has apparently been working on this title for 2 years now. When was the last time they gave an update? 
 
my team (2 people) have done substantially more work in 6 months than any other group who picked this up publicly. I’ll be damned if my work is published by a group who treated me and my partner this way. No problem, we will simply do it ourselves and I wish them the best with their version

It is an issue, and one that doesn't really need to happen with localized VNs.  To be blunt, compared to JVNs that haven't been localized, the prices are unbelievably cheap even in the most expensive cases.  There is no excuse for pirating localized VNs... especially since sales on digital versions are a regular thing if you just wait.

Not a bad summary, but you left out a massive reason they're not very profitable - piracy. People feel a sense of entitlement to porn, and also a degree of guilt with buying porn, so they pirate it instead. It's estimated there are 10x as many pirated copies of eroge compared to the number of units sold. Add a section of the community that is toxic and encourages piracy or discourages purchasing because they have some personal beef, and you've got a clusterfuck right there.  Whilst pirating is rife in all media areas, eroge seems particularly bad, which makes it much worse when the profit margins are so slim now.  VN translation is not a good business model, and virtually all the Western localisers do it because they're passionate about the medium, and most of the staff accept relatively poor pay for the same reason.